Behind
the news: on the origin of the "war of civilizations"
The cultural dimension of the current crisis
by
Reda Benkirane
Editorial analysis from the Bulletin "Behind the news",
Issue
no. 14, 14 February 2002
Among
the many reflections on the events related to September 11, two of the most
profound insights come from Christian thinkers who have focused their analyses
essentially on the cultural aspect of the crisis.
René
Girard, a French anthropologist from Stanford University, known for his
Scapegoat Theory and his anthropology of violence and religion, sees in these
events a "mimetic (mirror image) rivalry" of an unprecedented scale.
According to Girard, the resistance to the current globalization process
emerging from different parts of the world and the various Islamist armed
actions against the US and the West are motivated not because of their intrinsic
differences but because they are similar to what they fight against. "They
fight us because they look more and more like us" René Girard would say.
According
to Girard, Bush and Bin Laden are "mimetic twins" who both want to
have a global impact and reach a global audience. Both use the same religious
terminology based on binary logic (Crusades/Jihad, Good against Evil, etc.). Yet
even the profile of the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks against New York
and Washington attests that they were totally assimilated into Western culture.
Girard's insights, as an anthropologist influenced by Christian
eschatology,alert us to the risk of uniformity and homogeneity rather than the
risk of differences and divergence. The world is in danger of uniformity not of
diversity...The same simplistic and Manichean logic is used by both Bush and Bin
Laden in order to attract the attention and the support of Christians and
Muslims worldwide. But humanity deserves a real alternative vision which
reflects its plurality and which can overcome the current polarization of
religions, civilizations and cultures.
Konrad
Raiser provides a complementary analysis of the same events. In his presentation
at the WCC meeting on "Beyond 11 September: Assessing Global
Implications" (29 November-2 December 2001), he argues that a "symbolic
conflict" of a new nature has emerged. What we are seeing is a
confrontation over "symbolic power," rather than a struggle for
natural resources, trade routes or territories. The particular nature of this
conflict is especially reflected in the very symbols used and destroyed on
September 11. The way in which the conflict has been presented and justified,
and the fact that it is happening in an Information Age, amplified and distorted
by the mass media, explain partly why "our traditional analytical models
are inadequate to understand the conflict and why theology and religious
insights are needed". Raiser concluded his presentation by highlighting the
need to develop "new tools" for a better understanding of the
religious dimension of the present confrontation and also "to resist the
tendency to turn religion into an ideology for struggle."
On
the war of civilizations
In
order to address the crucial question of cultural diversity and the need to
integrate "non-Euro-centric" models of "creative thinking,"
the success and the relevance of the concept of "war of civilizations"
should be questioned. One of the most quoted theories proposed during the last
decade to explain the current cultural challenge is Samuel Huntington's Clash of
Civilizations, first introduced in his Foreign Affairs' article (1993) and later
published in a book (1996). While many have heard about this theory of war of
civilizations, very few observers know that the concept did not originate with
American political scientist Samuel Huntington. He is not even the person who
first coined the term "war of civilizations". The first explicit
mention of this concept came from Mahdi Elmandjra, a former Assistant
Director General of UNESCO, President of the World Future Studies Federation and
of Futuribles International (Paris), and member of the Club of Rome. Elmandjra,
who teaches International
Relations
at the University of Rabat, published "the First Civilizational War"
in 1991 referring to the Gulf war and the new "post-colonial"
situation created after the end of the Cold War. The book was published in
Arabic (1991), English and French (1992), and Japanese (2001). During the Gulf
war, Elmandjra gave a seminal interview to the German newspaper Der Spiegel (allusively
quoted in Huntington's book) where he introduced his own theory of the war of
civilizations. In this interview, Elmandjra essentially stigmatised the Western
fear of Islam, population growth in the South, and the growing importance of
Confucianist societies. All these ingredients of Elmandjra's theory of "war
of civilizations" were later included as basic assumptions in Huntington's
thesis. It is instructive to know that this theory of "war of civilizations"
initially was formulated as a "non-Euro-centric" point of view which
denounced the bellicose perception of cultures and civilizations and which
advocated increased recognition of the world's cultural diversity.
The
problem with the application of Huntington's theory is that cultures and
civilizations are now portrayed as playing the roles that nation-states played
during the Cold War. Cultures and civilizations are seen as monolithic blocs
acting on the geopolitical scene rather than as living and evolving organisms
that need constantly to exchange and interact with their environment. A related
concern is the political perception of religions, civilizations and cultures:
even Islamist as well as Christian and Jewish "neo-fundamentalist"
movements see themselves primarily as political actors rather than as spiritual
movements. This brings to mind Girard's mimetic rivalry which is also denounced
by Raiser in his concluding remarks on the "symbolic hegemony".
Religions, civilizations and cultures should not be reduced to political
entities and confrontations. Instead of "policing civilizations" as
implied in Huntington's thesis, the world needs to "civilize politics".
Political and economic analyses are not sufficient to comprehend the complexity
of the world. Better understanding of the cultural and religious components
could more adequately address the problem of present international disorder.
Furthermore,
the fear of the Other is often based on the ignorance of the Other. Perhaps it
is time in the West to learn more about Islam, about its spirituality, its arts,
its poets, writers and scientists, and about its tolerance which has been
demonstrated so many times - for example in Spain for 700 years and in the
Ottoman empire until the beginning of the 20th century. There are also some
universal issues - on political violence, arms race, poverty, illiteracy,
pollution, pandemics, etc. - that transcend cultural differences and national
borders and which must now be taught, learnt, discussed and shared by every
citizen of the world. As stated by the Spanish writer Rodrigo de Zayas: "We
must teach humanity to humanity".
Further
readings :
Konrad
Raiser, Beyond 11 September: Implications for the Churches, Beyond 11 September.
Assessing Global Implications, Geneva, 29 November-2 December 2001.
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/symbolic.html
René
Girard, What Is Occurring Today Is a Mimetic Rivalry on a Planetary Scale,
Interview by Henri Tincq, Le Monde, 6 November2001, translation Jim Williams
http://theol.uibk.ac.at/cover/girard_le_monde_interview.ht
ml
Mahdi
Elmandjra, Der erste Weltkrieg der Kulturen (This is the first civilizational
war), in: "Der Spiegel", Hamburg, 11 February 1991.
http://www.elmandjra.org/der110291.jpg
Mahdi Elmandjra, Première guerre civilisationnelle, Casablanca, Toubkal, 1992.
http://www.elmandjra.org/livre1/Tablematiere.html
Samuel
P. Huntington, The clash of civilizations, in: Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993,
v72, n3.
http://www.alamut.com/subj/economics/misc/clash.html
Samuel
P. Huntington, The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order, New
York, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
......................................................................
"The
conflict which broke out in August 1990 announced the advent of the
post-colonial era. The beginning of hostilities set the stage for the first
civilizational war. The Gulf war is but the first episode of a North-South
conflict where the fundamental issue is basically of a cultural nature. (...) I
have said and written on many an occasion since September 12th, 1990 that what
is taking place in the Gulf was not only a political, economic or military
conflict, but above all, a cultural confrontation. Being a researcher in the
prospective field, I have never ceased, for 15 years now, to warn the West
against its socio-cultural ethnocentrism and the dangers it involved on the eve
of the 21st century."
Mahdi
Elmandjra, Futurist, The First Civilizational War (1992) Book available on the
Web at: http://www.elmandjra.org/Contents.htm
......................................................................
From
the Bulletin "Behind the news",
Issue
no. 14, 14 February 2002
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews/index.html